Record Review Podcast

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Lehar's Merry Widow Oct 10, 2021

Show notes

Nigel Simeone chooses his favourite recording of Lehar's The Merry Widow.

The Merry Widow by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár is one of the most popular operettas in the repertoire. It's the story of a fabulously rich widow, and the political shenanigans involved in making sure her fortune stays in the principality by finding her the right husband. Since its 1905 premiere in Vienna, it continues to captivate and charm audiences with its tuneful score, including hits such as the "Vilja Song", "You'll Find Me at Maxim's" and the "Merry Widow Waltz".

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Bach's Coffee Cantata Oct 02, 2021

Show notes

Simon Heighes compares recordings of Bach's Coffee Cantata and chooses his favourite.

Among Bach's secular cantatas, perhaps the most famous and frequently recorded is Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht – the Coffee Cantata – BWV 211.

Probably composed in 1734 for a performance at Leipzig's Zimmermann Coffee House with the student group collegium musicum, the comic cantata satirises the Saxon obsession with coffee, depicting a family dispute between father and daughter, Schlendrian and Liesgen, at odds about the benefits of the hot drink.

Saint-Saëns - Carnival of the Animals Sep 27, 2021

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Sarah Devonald chooses her favourite recording of Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals.

The Carnival of the Animals is a glorious romp in fourteen movements by Camille Saint-Saëns. It is for two pianos and chamber ensemble; and is among his most popular. Includes well-known movements like Elephants, Fossils and the Swan.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Schumann's Liederkreis Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

Allyson Devenish compares recordings of Schumann's Liederkreis, Op 39, and chooses her favourite.

Schumann's Liederkreis, Op 39, is considered to be one of the greatest song cycles of the 19th century. Composed in 1840, Liederkreis comprises 12 songs which set poems by the German Romantic poet, Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff. Together, the 12 songs explore themes of loss, loneliness, nocturnal mystery, ecstasy and reverie. Schumann himself considered the Liederkreis, Op 39 to be the most romantic music he had ever written, and he wrote to his wife that the cycle had 'music of you in it, dearest Clara'.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Jul 25, 2021

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Musicologist Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite recording of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, a set of dazzling variations for piano and orchestra on Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin, was premiered in 1934 in Baltimore by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski with Rachmaninov playing the solo part. Rachmaninov had already written four piano concerti, and this Rhapsody parades as a one-movement piano concerto that takes Paganini's theme on a journey through brisk and highly virtuosic variations at the beginning and end and through richly lyrical variations in the slower middle section. The Rhapsody has become a cornerstone of the virtuoso piano repertoire and it has also been adapted for ballet.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Liszt Piano Sonata in B Minor Jul 17, 2021

Show notes

Music researcher and writer Katy Hamilton chooses her favourite recording of Liszt's Sonata in B minor.

When Clara Schumann described Liszt's 1854 Piano Sonata in B minor as 'truly terrible' it reflected an influential school of 19th-century thought (Brahms fell asleep when he first heard it). But for Liszt himself it was his breakthrough piece which established him as a 'proper' composer, one for whom musically-driven formal organisation and inspired ingenuity were paramount, rather than a mere pianist whose music was generated by the need to demonstrate his transcendent technique.

Posterity has sided with Liszt, not Clara – and so have successive generations of performers, reflected in a recorded legacy that is a veritable Who's Who of the great pianists of the last century and our own.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Bernstein's Chichester Psalms Jul 12, 2021

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Leonard Bernstein's exuberant Chichester Psalms was one of the composer's many strong connections with the UK, commissioned for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival at Chichester Cathedral. Music journalist Edward Seckerson talks to Andrew about the background to the piece, whilst whittling down the available recordings to come up with the finest recording to buy, download or stream.

Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata Jul 04, 2021

Show notes

Musicologist Professor Natasha Loges chooses her favourite recording of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. Beethoven's Violin Sonata in A major, Op.47, more commonly known simply as the Kreutzer Sonata, is one of the most technically challenging pieces in the violin repertoire. Leo Tolstoy immortalised the work in his notorious and daring 1889 novella The Kreutzer Sonata, which was promptly censored by the Russian authorities and, a year later, prohibited in newspapers in the USA. Beethoven composed his Kreutzer Sonata in 1803 and originally dedicated it to his friend and leading virtuoso of the day, George Bridgetower. They premiered the work together in May 1803 at Vienna's Augarten Theatre, allegedly sight-reading the entire work. Shortly afterwards, the two men fell out and Beethoven changed the dedication to the French violin pedagogue, composer and conductor, Rudolphe Kreutzer. It is said that Kreutzer himself hated the sonata and refused to play it. The dedication, however, has remained. It is a lengthy three-movement work in which a serene Andante with variations is bookended by two fiery outer movements. Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Mozart Quintet for Piano and Wind K.452 Jun 27, 2021

Show notes

Iain Burnside chooses his favourite recording of Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Wind K.452. Mozart wrote his famous Quintet in E flat major for Piano and Winds in 1784 and it was premiered at the Imperial and Royal National Court Theater in Vienna. Shortly afterwards, Mozart wrote to his father: "I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life." It is scored for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. And most people seem to agree with the composer that it is indeed one of his best pieces - with its amazing wind-writing and life-enhancing energy. Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde Jun 20, 2021

Show notes

Musicologist Dr Flora Willson chooses her favourite recording of Mahler's orchestral song cycle Das Lied von der Erde.

Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, 'Song of the Earth', is a set of six songs for two voices and orchestra, but is it a song-cycle or a symphony? Mahler certainly intended for Das Lied von der Erde to reflect the world in co taining everything, the whole range of human emotions and earthly experience, but the work doesn't easily fall into either the category of song-cycles or truly symphonic works. Mahler drew his texts for Das Lied from a compendium called The Chinese Flute, a translation of Chinese poems by the German poet Hans Bethge.

Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde in 1908-9 within a year of losing his beloved daughter Maria and receiving the diagnosis of the heart condition that would kill him in 1911. The work begins and ends with two of Mahler's most famous songs: Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde (The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrows) and Der Abscheid (The Farewell), a hauntingly beautiful, bleak and heartrending farewell to life as the 'sun sets behind the mountains.' The intervening songs are the introspective‘Der Einsame im Herbst’ (The Lonely One in Autumn) for mezzo soprano, the sprightly ‘Von der Jugend’ (Of Youth) for tenor, ‘Von der Schönheit’ (Of Beauty) depicting an innocent scene by a river bank where girls are picking flowers but are then briefly threatened by the arrival of boys on horseback, and ‘Der Trunkene im Frühling’ (The Drunkard in Spring).

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

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